mid-July

So it's finally warmed up enough to wear shorts, although I haven't taken the step to shorts and a t-shirt. However, if you choose to walk outside with shorts on, your legs will soon be black with flies and mosquitoes, hungry for your blood. Short wearing time only lasts for a couple hours in the evening a couple days per week. When it's not sunny and hot, it's over cast and raining, verging on a down pour. Apparently August is a pretty damp month, so I'm enjoying the sun while I can.

Last week I had a real cultural experience when Sibylle and I went to watch a Sami tradition, reindeer ear marking. The Sami are the native people of Lappland (northern Norway, Sweden, Finnland, and eastern Russia) and have relied on reindeer herding as a livelihood for generations. For most of the year, the reindeer roam free through the forests and across the fjälls. Every single reindeer is claimed by a Sami family, so people here consider reindeer domesticated. After calves are born in the spring, local Sami families plan times for herding and ear marking during the summer. Every family has a certain marking they put on the ears of their reindeer and many often have multiple marks. The whole deal is similar to branding cattle. During a cold night without rain, everyone hikes up into the fjälls where an area has been fenced off. The reindeer are herded up a valley and into the fenced area and this is when the fun begins.

Cold nights are chosen because the calves are more likely to stay close to their mothers. Being as far north as we are, there is no problem with seeing at any given hour. By watching which calf goes to which mother, the Sami are able to determine who the reindeer belong to. The mothers have already been marked and tonight is time for the calves rite of passage. When the Sami see a calf following a mother who is theirs, they fling a tightly coiled loop, lassoing the calf around the neck. Keeping a tight hold onto the rope, they go down the line hand over hand until they can pin the calf on the ground. Equipped at the hip with traditional knives as sharp as razors, they quickly holds the ears as they cut out notches, effectively "branding" their reindeer. Once done, they release the calf and begin looking for another one.

Keep in mind, that while one is focused on marking an ear, there are hundreds of reindeer stampeding around and numerous other families marking ears. If the Sami get tired, they can go outside the fence where multiple fires are kept lit and stocked with wood throughout the night. The native vs invader mentality exists almost everywhere and Lappland is no exception. The Sami and Swedes don't get along very well and generally keep to themselves. One of the few ways to see the ear marking tradition is to know a Sami who has invited you. We were lucky enough to have such a friend through Dave and Annette. After leaving Slussfors at 17:00, I finally returned around 6:30, the next morning. It had never gotten dark, I hadn't slept a wink, and I felt like I had seen something special in life.